Police are targeting accident blackspots with speed cameras in a bid to halt the massive number of accidents on the region's roads.

The Chronicle revealed yesterday latest figures show a massive 11 per cent rise in serious casualties and fatalities around the North East to more than 1,000 in a year.

There were six crashes in which people died over the weekend and officers say they are determined to stem the rise in fatalities.

Known accident blackspots in the North East include the A1 Western Bypass, A1 at Stannington, A696 in Ponteland, the A1058 Coast Road and the A69.

Driver awareness training is being given to people who commit minor offences to teach them to be safer on the roads.

Insp Gavin Clark said: "This was set up to deal with minor road traffic collisions.

"Drivers are taught in a classroom situation about driver awareness and how to deal with being on the road.

"In many cases drivers have become too complacent or have got into bad habits that need to be corrected.

"It is important that all drivers become aware of what goes on around them and maintain a vigilance at all times.

"For example, a majority of pedestrian accidents involve young people or the elderly and drivers need to be aware that there is a chance people in those age groups may act in a way that they may not expect.

"Drivers need to drum it into their heads that they cannot drink and drive and we always run campaigns in the summer and winter to combat this.

"We investigate every accident, and any particular road which has a problem is tackled and, if necessary, speed cameras are brought in to tackle the problem or the case is investigated further."

Insp Clark said speed bumps don't always provide a solution as they can hinder emergency vehicles and lead to bad driving habits.

He said: "These can be a solution in some cases, but you may often get drivers speeding up away from the bumps and breaking immediately before them.

"The best way to cut casualties on the region's roads is to change the attitudes of drivers and to make it clear that driving is a responsibility and a privilege, not a right."

Since Friday, a 19-year-old has died after the sports car he was in hit a lamppost on the A195 Northumberland Way near its junction with Inkerman Road.

In another incident yesterday, an elderly woman washurt after being struck by a lorry on a pedestrian crossing in Morpeth.

The 86-year-old woman was trapped by her foot under the wheel of the lorry.

A 16-year-old boy from South Shields died in the early hours of Saturday after a car in which he was a passenger left the A183 on a bend near Souter Lighthouse, South Tyneside, and hit a wall.

He was named last night as Andrew Barrett. Three other people in the car, a 19-year-old driver and two teenage passengers, all from South Shields, suffered minor injuries.

And an inquest opened today into the death of Ronald Weightmam, who died in a rush-hour crash last Friday on Fellside Road, Whickham at 8.20am.

The 27-year-old, of Granary Court, Steadings, Consett, County Durham, died last Friday when his car veered across the road and hit an oncoming vehicle.

Stanley Hahn, 45, of Thanet Road, Sunderland died on Sunday in Newcastle General Hospital.

He was knocked down in Springwell Road, Sunderland, at 11.20pm also last Friday.

Also on Sunday, a36-year-old man died after losing control of his bike at Tarset, near Bellingham in north Northumberland.

And on the same day, 17-year-old cyclist Carla Mary Louise Garbutt, from North Shields died after she was hit by a blue Rover 214 on the A19 near the Silverlink Retail Park in North Tyneside.